Assignment Objectives:

Exploration of models for online collaboration

Reflecting on what different models allow groups to accomplish

Connecting collaborative models to styles for attending 
 

Description of the Assignment 
Students in a computer classroom were assigned to groups for the purpose of summarizing an assigned reading in a collaborative online space (google.documents).  Groups were assigned such that there were digital experts and digital newcomers in each group. 

Students were instructed to create a collaborative summary in google.documents (a word processing space that allows multiple authors to contribute to the creation of a document online.) 

After each group set up their documents and all members were "in" the space - questions arose about "how" to do the assignment.  At that point students were informed that the assignment had two parts: 1) creating a collaborative document; and 2) figuring out a process for composing a collaborative document that allowed everyone to cotribute and that enabled the group to compose its best summary. 

After about 20 minutes, students presentd their work "so far"; characterized their collaborative process, and discussed how well their process for collaboration was working.